


Assertion

by Saffronthread



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Ackerman shit, Canon Universe, Gen, I think they're doing it wrong, Levi is basically Mikasa's father figure, Some Fluff, but oh well, i'm not that funny tho, immature power moves, maybe humor, they're trying to do the whole "family" thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2020-10-10 05:51:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20522990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saffronthread/pseuds/Saffronthread
Summary: In which someone has to be in charge of the Ackerman clan, and Mikasa rises to the challenge.OR, a series of oneshots in which Levi is a Good Dad.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> assertion (n): a confident and forceful statement of fact or belief.

Levi did not get paid enough for this shit. 

“You have a lot of nerve barging in here like this, brat.” He eyed the envelope that was slammed down on his desk just moments before, distrusting both its content and its sender. Part of him was concerned for the wellbeing of the wood, while the other, much larger part wanted to break the whole damn desk over Mikasa's head. 

Levi had half a mind to do just that, but then Erwin’s smug face reared itself at the forefront of his mind - gleefully deducting the cost from the Survey Corps’ tea budget like a titan-sized asshole. He frowned. 

Mikasa’s stance, much to Levi’s dismay, did not waver under his scrutiny. “You did not answer when I knocked. For all I knew, you were dead on the carpet - potentially assassinated. I was merely following protocol… Your safety in particular is necessary for humanity’s survival,” she muttered through gritted teeth, as if the words physically pained her to say. “Luckily, you were merely plucking lint out from the carpet, not assassinated.” She pointed to the envelope now in his hands. “This, however, is a matter that requires your immediate attention.” 

Levi rolled his eyes, wondering how many laps around headquarters he could order Mikasa to run before she passed out. Probably hundreds, and no one had the time to monitor that, least of all him. “Tch. Whatever.” He tore open the note, scanning over the words written in meticulous, cursive script. “What the hell is this shit supposed to mean?” After reading it over once more - slowly digesting the stupidity of it all - something in his jaw twitched. “You’re calling for a _clan_ _meeting?_” 

She nodded. “Yes. Sunday night, if you’re able. According to my father, members of the Ackerman clan would gather a few times a year to share a meal and discuss clan affairs. Sometimes, they would even-”

“There’s only two of us,” he cut her off, flat and lacking in flexibility. “That’s hardly anything that needs managing.”

“With all due respect, Captain, there are only two that we know of. You and me. All the more reason to hold a meeting.” 

Levi leaned back in his chair, his elbow pressing against the armrest while two fingers massaged his throbbing temple. He was getting too old for these types of surprises. “And you think this is a good idea because-?”

“It is important to uphold traditions, sir.” She said it so smoothly, so effortlessly, that she almost had him convinced. But still, a major flaw strung itself through her shitty logic. 

One line in particular held his attention hostage on the page. “Oi. Brat. Tell me something.”

“Yes, Captain?” 

He inhaled, held it for a long moment. “What _ exactly _ gives you the right to declare yourself as clan head?” 

At first, she looked taken aback, as if she was the _ obvious _choice - a notion that Levi fundamentally disagreed with. Not that he cared about rankings in a two-person clan, and especially not if the other member was Mikasa, of all people. 

But, of course, she had an answer for that, too. “I have been an Ackerman much longer than you. All my life, in fact. In every regard, that makes me more qualified for the position.”

“More _ qualified? _” Levi breathed in. Then out. Controlling his temper, as he was so often told to do. “Excuse me?” 

As if sensing his mood, Mikasa turned on her heel and was halfway out the door before she delivered the final blow. “Try not to be late. For the time being, I don’t have anyone else to be second-in-command, so I’d hate to demote you.” 

It was at that exact moment when Levi chucked a five-pound paperweight at his subordinate’s head, which, unfortunately, veered to the left and missed its mark. She slipped out of the room like a wisp of smoke, leaving behind only a hideous glare in her wake. 

"Piece of shit kid," he grumbled under his breath after ensuring she was gone and out of earshot. "Dumbass clan meeting, tch." 

Levi glanced down at the paper one last time and took note of how it was folded precisely down the middle, and how each line of text was written carefully. Evenly. As though it had taken many tries to perfect. 

Despite its strengths, the awkward wording and unpracticed signature reminded him that Mikasa was still only fifteen. A twice orphaned teenager. 

Sighing, he folded the note up carefully and slid it into his jacket pocket. With any luck, Erwin would still be in his office when Levi got there.

He needed to request Sunday night off.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't going to add to this fic, but inspiration struck, so here we are lol

When Levi had his back turned, Mikasa swapped out his fresh cup of black tea for the chamomile she claimed to have brewed for herself. Partially because he would never get any sleep if he kept drinking tea this late in the afternoon, but mostly because she wanted to see him suffer. Only a little bit. With one leg bouncing underneath the table in the Survey Corps' library, she sat back and sipped at Levi's stolen tea.

It hadn't been a productive day for either of them. 

The testing for Eren's titan form had hit a wall. Metaphorically, of course. He couldn't create the same hardened crystal that Annie could, not even close, rendering their plan to plug the hole in Wall Maria moot. Now they were all just going in circles, trying the same methods over and over again just to come up horrifically short. Eren and Hange were visibly frustrated, which surprised no one, but Mikasa could tell that Levi was feeling the pressure, too, despite Commander Erwin's call for patience. He might have been the only patient person in the Survey Corps.

Levi returned from the stacks carrying a handful of books in his arms. He dropped them down on the table without consideration and slid one towards her. 

"You start with this one." He sat down, pulling another book to himself, and began flipping through it's yellowing pages. 

Mikasa didn't respond, she didn't have to. The books Levi brought back were old. Like, binding-held-together-by-string old. Most of them contained old children's stories - young girls stolen in the night by titans and being rescued by kings and the like. Regular fairytales that Mikasa had heard variations of hundreds of times throughout her life. Levi's idea was to dig back far enough to get closer to the origin. Closer to the truth. And old wives' tales always contained some kernel of truth, or so he said. Mikasa wasn’t exactly sure how valid that claim was. At the very least, there might have been something suggested about the titans that they never considered before. Some strange behavior that was written down at some point and never seen again. Needless to say, neither of them told Hange that they were snooping through children's books to study titans. Levi came up with the idea and only told Mikasa.

Because she was the Ackerman clan head. He was obligated to tell her. 

An hour into their research was when Levi became visibly agitated. He was so engrossed in his dead-end readings that he completely forgot about his tea, which was a shame. Mikasa really wanted to see him spill tea all over his stupid cravat. 

“How are you holding up?” she asked, setting her book down. “Find anything interesting?” 

He sighed. “Does a prince morphing into a titan sound promising?”

“Depends. Does he turn back into a human in the end?” 

What a glare he had. He could kill people with a look like that. “Not sure. Haven’t finished it yet.” 

Mikasa nodded once, somewhat pleased with his irritation. Though, if she was being honest with herself, which she did not like to do in situations like these, Mikasa would have admitted that she actually liked spending time with Levi. Reading books, drinking tea, idly chatting about their day - it was nice. Familiar. But, when push came to shove, they both could have used a distraction at that point. “My father used to tell me these stories, you know.” 

Levi looked up from his book. “Oh?”

She hummed. “He’d tell me one every night before bed. They were always of humans that turned into titans, or titans who turned into humans - I used to think it was all just a bunch of nonsense. Just a way for people to cope with the reality of their imprisonment. Now I’m not so sure if that’s the case.” After all, humans and titans could be one and the same. Eren was living proof of that.

Wind swept through the library from an open window a couple aisles down, the late summer air a warm friend in the otherwise cold space. Levi ran a finger along the rim of his cup. Mikasa looked on intently. 

“Your father must have been a good man.” 

“He was,” she said, his comment pulling her focus away from the teacup. “You would have liked him.” Mikasa’s father was everything Levi lacked - patient, gentle, calm by nature, kind. Not to say that Levi wasn’t kind, but he expressed it in… unconventional ways. 

The memory of Levi kicking Eren’s teeth out in court flashed in her mind and she bit back a scowl. 

Mikasa wasn’t sure why she was comparing the two, they had nothing to do with each other, so she kept talking to derail her train of thought. “He was the best father I could have asked for. Then Doctor Yaeger took me in - he was great, too. I was lucky to have them both, even if it was for only a short time.”

Briefly, she wondered why Levi’s eye twitched after she said that, but then he took a quick sip of his cold chamomile tea and immediately spat it out on the table, his cravat now stained with yellow spots. 

Levi looked up at her with tea dripping down his jaw, then he looked to the cup in his hand. Mikasa could see the gears turning in his head - did he accidentally pick up the wrong cup? Had he somehow mixed up the tea leaves without thinking? Was this a deliberate attack? 

“Oi, brat.” 

“Sir?” 

“Explain to me how this piss got here.”

She couldn’t help but smirk. “It’s called chamomile and it’s supposed to relax you.” She shifted her body in preparation to run for it. “You’ve pulled all-nighters for two nights straight.”

“I know what chamomile is, you shithead.” He set the cup back down on the table, away from the books, and laced his fingers together. It did not go unnoticed that he, too, shifted his weight, albeit subtly. A wolf getting ready to lunge. “And you thought that tricking me into drinking piss would ‘relax’ me?”

“That was the hope, yes.”

“You’ve got some nerve,” he said, his eyes narrowing. “Where’s my black tea.” Not a question, just a passive demand to fork over his drug of choice.

Mikasa mentally braced herself to flee, though her face remained neutral. “It was delicious. Best tea I’ve ever had.” 

Levi had clearly heard enough and chose that moment to strike. Mikasa ran from the library without looking back, knocking her chair over backwards in the process. The thunderous footsteps behind her were accompanied by a string of curses that were too scandalous to repeat in polite company. She didn’t mind, though. In fact, she was kind of having… fun? 

Yeah, no, she was going to bury that emotion deep, _ deep _ down. 

While they may not have discovered anything new about titans, Mikasa _ did _ learn that Levi hated having his precious tea tampered with. Who would have guessed? 

She ran out the library door, across the courtyard to the next building over, and straight into the women’s shower room before he had a chance to catch her. She could hear him grumbling from the hallway. Apparently he could “wait out here all night” and had every intention to “strangle” her the second she showed her face. Mikasa snorted and snuck out through the back window without getting caught. For all she knew, he was still out there waiting. 

All in all, she would say she ended up having a pretty productive day.


End file.
